


Belongings and Belonging

by Flynne



Series: Garviel Shepard [6]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Garviel Shepard, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 02:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15109466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flynne/pseuds/Flynne
Summary: A brief moment from Garviel's recovery with Hannah on Arcturus Station.





	Belongings and Belonging

Hannah stepped out into the main room, glancing curiously to the door. “Did I hear the door chime just now?” **  
**

“Uh, yeah.” Garv stood in the entryway. He held a footlocker in his arms, and a sealed crate was at his feet. “Someone from admin brought my stuff by. Finally.”

“Ah, I see.” Hannah looked over the crate and footlocker. N7 marines traveled light, she knew, but it still seemed like an awfully small amount of personal possessions. She didn’t comment, though, merely saying, “They sure took their time getting it to you.”

Garv huffed a laugh. “Guess shipping one guy his personal effects isn’t exactly top priority, what with everything else they’ve got to do.” He carried the footlocker over to the coffee table and sat down on the couch. Hannah watched him as he began unlocking the small crate. Bandages still covered his arm and wrapped around his torso beneath his t-shirt, but for all that, he moved with almost no hesitation now. His injuries from the tragedy on Akuze had healed faster than she’d thought possible, and she felt a bittersweet pang at the thought that he’d be ready for active duty again before she knew it.

She moved to stand behind the couch. “Everything there?”

“Yeah. I was just, uh. I was looking for something. Kinda wanted to show you.”

“Oh?” Hannah came around to sit next to him, gazing at him curiously. She hadn’t heard Garv talk in his shy, halting manner since the early days of their acquaintance.

Garv shifted through the items in the bottom of the box and eventually lifted out a small black book. It was just big enough to fit in his hand, covered in weathered black leather. His cheeks flushed a little as he held it out to her.

Hannah turned it over in her hands and realized it was an old and well-traveled photo album. She opened the cover, eyes coming to rest on a faded picture of a small boy in denim overalls. 

The edges of the photo were frayed, but the picture was still clear; tousled white-blond hair hung over wide gray eyes, looking solemnly up at the camera. Hannah looked up at Garv. His blush deepened, but he gestured at the photo and said quietly, “I think I was three, there.”

Her eyes prickled but she blinked the sting away, turning her attention back to the album. In the next picture, Garv was a little older. The baby-soft roundness of his cheeks was nearly gone, but the hair still hung over his face in white-blond wisps. He was sitting on a swing, looking ready to pump his legs and go - but he’d also evidently been told to sit still by the unseen photographer, and didn’t like it. Hannah held back a smile at the stubborn glint in the gray eyes and turned the page.

There weren’t many pictures. Garv was a little older, still, in the next few - thinner, the hair shorter and a darker shade of blond, but the same solemn look on his face in each photograph. It was hard to tell his age in each picture, but Hannah didn’t think he could have been much older than eight or nine at the most. When she came to the last picture, she felt the sting of tears again. Garv hadn’t realized that he was being photographed. He was maybe four or five years old, sitting outside in the grass and holding a scratched plastic fire truck in one hand. His tousled white-blond mop gleamed bright in the sun, and he was laughing at something or someone out of the frame.

Hannah smiled up at him. “This one is my favorite.”

Garv gave her a spare, shy smile. “Even Akil hasn’t seen those yet.”

Hannah closed the photo album. “Thank you for showing me.”

He still looked a little embarrassed, but happy. “You can, uh. You can have ‘em. If you want,” he added. “It’s not like I look at them a lot or anything. I only kept them because…well, I don’t really have much from when I was a kid and it didn’t feel right to get rid of them, so…” He laughed sheepishly, face flushing again as he added, “…I guess now I know why I felt like there was a reason I felt like I needed to hang on to them.”

“I would love to keep them,” Hannah said softly. She reached out to cup his cheek before leaning forward to kiss his forehead. “Thank you, son.” As he smiled back at her, she saw the echo of the laughing little boy in the lines of his face.


End file.
